Chapter 156: The Quiet Before the Next Surge
The morning after the storm arrived with an unusual stillness.
The sky over the city was pale and washed clean, the clouds from the previous day's rain scattered thinly across the horizon. Sunlight filtered through the glass towers, reflecting off puddles that still lingered along the roads and sidewalks.
For the first time in several days, the air felt calm.
Too calm.
Inside the operations center, Marcus stared at the system monitors with a strange sense of unease.
Every major indicator was stable.
Construction activity had resumed.
Logistics routes were flowing again.
Infrastructure inspections were progressing without incident.
Healthcare digitization had expanded into two more district clinics overnight.
Everything looked… smooth.
Marcus leaned back slowly.
"That's suspicious," he muttered.
Systems this large rarely stayed quiet for long.
At 7:20 a.m., Elena walked into the operations room carrying a stack of reports.
